The Epilogues: Part I: Badge of Honor (The Potentate of Atlanta Book 6), Hailey Edwards [year 2 reading books TXT] 📗

the terms and conditions from the next room. Since she wasn’t in the room, or technically present for the reading, she wasn’t required to sign the papers.”

Which explained why she wasn’t sweating us holding her. She held the upper hand, and she knew it.

“We’ll send someone by shortly to collect your sister’s contact information.” Once we had two of them, I would let the enforcers play them off each other while questioning them about Neely. “She can come in, give her testimony, and once her information is verified, you’re both free to go.”

The black witch scrutinized me. “How do I know you’ll hold up your end of the deal?”

“You’ll have to roll the dice, just like us. We’re risking a lot more in trusting you than you are in us.”

Sulking, she padded back to her cot and flopped down to wait.

I switched off the intercom and dared to hope we had finally turned a corner in this case.

“We wait for the sister,” Midas said, proving he could read my mind at times. “We see if their stories match, then we drill them for information on Neely’s whereabouts. The voicemails, and Morton’s special delivery, are enough to turn them on their employers, if they need more motivation.”

“Yeah.” I had to believe that. “Do you mind if I call in Bishop to handle this?”

He was right upstairs, and he had a knack for getting people to talk.

“I’ll handle it.” He stared through the glass at her. “Personally.”

“Thank you.” I rose on tiptoe to kiss him. “I’m heading to HQ.”

Bishop and I could share a ride there then put out whatever fire had held him up in the apartment.

“I’ll call you as soon as I’m done here.”

As I drifted into the lobby, I noticed Hank, who waved me over to him.

“That woman was back.” Hank growled as he opened the door for me. “Sue walked into the lobby, took a call, then left about three minutes ago.”

Scanning the street, I saw nothing but traffic. “That’s it?”

“I kept an eye on her.” He tapped his ear. “She moved out of hearing range before placing the call.”

The rules of working the front door were simple: Don’t leave it unmanned. Ever.

Hank, to my knowledge, had only left his post once. To capture Lillian when she sneaked past him.

“Sue’s mated to a shifter.” I had trouble picturing it. “Weirdly enough, she’s picked up an ever-growing list of anti-shifter habits from him.”

In our world, there were predators and then there were predators. Maybe I was looking at this the wrong way. Sue might not be anti-shifter so much as she was anti-apex predator. Without knowing more about selkies, I couldn’t say if her precautions were warranted when in close proximity to others who were more animalistic than her spouse, or if they were biased against those predators for being less—for lack of a better word—human.

“I’ll call security.” I got out my phone. “See if they can pull the feed for me.”

I wanted to know what turned her on her heel so fast.

And if it had anything to do with the black witch in holding or the vampires who dumped her there.

Ten

Both Linus and Hadley had done more than their fair share when it came to excising the rot in Atlanta. Midas only had to look at Jenny Bard to know Hadley could spend the rest of her life skimming scum off the topmost layers without ever hitting the bottom of the barrel.

“We’ve got eyes on Clans Jefferies, Van de Berg, and Morton.” Ford sidled up to him. “The sister’s statement is being notarized as we speak.” He glanced at Midas. “It’s a smoking gun aimed at Jefferies.”

“We need to bring in Jefferies’s ambassador for questioning.”

“Will that be overstepping?” Ford scratched his cheek. “Does that fall under OPA sanction or ours?”

“Morton dumped the witch here. That makes her our problem.”

The letter of the law didn’t matter to him where Hadley’s safety and happiness were concerned.

“Jenny still holding out on Neely’s location?”

“Yes.” Much longer, and Midas would pry the answers from her. “She is.”

Jenny’s sister had already confessed to working with Jefferies to kidnap and contain the Billiards. She was in this up to her neck, and Midas was ready to shove her head under water if it got him the information to save Neely…and Hadley’s dreams.

“Black witches.” Ford shuddered. “Makes my skin crawl even through the magic barrier.”

“The Billiards are in Lake Lanier. We know that much.”

“I doubt a serial kidnapper would stash their victims all in one place. Makes it too easy to lose their whole collection if cops locate the hidey-hole. The need to keep them together, or have them nearby, would be an emotional choice. This isn’t personal, though. It’s professional. And the lake’s potential is huge. There’s so much debris on the bed from flooding that area, who knows what it’s concealing?”

With a large and thriving aquatic paranormal community under the water, there would be protections in place. Those might very well, unintentionally, shield Neely’s location from them too.

And Midas had no doubt that Neely was in that lake. Somewhere. Bubbled in just like the Billiard family.

“Water disrupts normal magic.” Midas recalled Hadley telling him that. “The tactical coven is good, the best in our area, but there are rules that magic follows. They can’t guarantee their methods will locate Neely in time, or at all.”

“We know what lake-dwellers do to bodies left in the water.” Ford grimaced. “We might never find him.”

Unless Hadley sacrificed her career. For Neely? She would do it in a heartbeat.

“One sprite can’t clear the whole lake solo.” Midas exhaled. “An old-fashioned manhunt, assuming we could talk Lake Lanier inhabitants into helping or allowing us to search their private residences, could take days or even weeks. We don’t have either.”

The gauntlet was tomorrow night, and there were no takebacks once Hadley stepped down.

“Where does Sue fit in?” Ford fiddled with a button on his shirt. “What’s her game?”

“I don’t trust her. I understand why she’s